By RUTH YAMBAYAMBA
“OUR economy is crawling, one wishes that we should have a more vibrant economy, former Bank of Zambia Governor Caleb Fundanga has said.
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Speaking in an interview on Wednesday, Dr Fundanga, who is a renowned economist says there are many factors that have led to the shrinking economy of the country.
Dr Fundanga said the performance of the mining sector was not inspiring, stating that the two mining firms, Konkola Copper Mine (KCM) and Mopani Copper Mine (MCM) had been messed up because of political interference.
Dr Fundanga said at the time government was trying to nationalise the two giant mining firms, the country had already lost huge amounts of money whose resultant effect was reduced production.
“Mopani for example was being run properly by Glencore and we don’t know whatever people didn’t like about the running of Mopani. So it was interfered with. We wouldn’t have reached where we got to. The government just said they wanted to take over. They wanted more shares and Glencore said you can have all the shares. And they agreed that they will pay about US$1.5 million and payment would be done over time.”
“Regarding KCM, the owners were not doing what they promised to do by developing Konkola Deep Mine because Konkola deep was being seen as future of mining. And they promised to pump in a lot of money which they did not do,” Dr Fundanga said.
Dr Fundanga said copper had been key to Zambia’s economy and the reduced production had negatively affected the economic growth of the country.
He also said the lack of vibrant manufacturing companies had also contributed to the dwindling economy.
Dr Fundanga said there was need for government to do just more than enough to ensure that the economy comes back to its knees.
He said the smuggling of maize and mealie needed to be stopped completely so that the commodities could be legally exported for the country to start earning the much needed foreign exchange.
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